Argentine Farmers Back on Strike

You may not be familiar with the agriculture situation in Argentina, but it's important for the U.S. to understand.

Source: Muriel Elizabeth Hayes, Argentina | Sep 24, 2008

You may not have heard about the farming situation in Argentina, but it's important for the U.S. to understand what's going on in order to fully understand the global beef market.

Argentine farmers began a strike on March 4, 2008 in protest to the government's high export taxes on livestock and grain. This was in effect largely because the government wants to keep domestic prices down for a country that just experienced a hard economy recession.

However, the farmers are taking the real hit for the government's efforts, and they aren't going to put up with it anymore. Farm leader Eduardo Buzzi, said on Monday, that farmers may have to go back to setting up roadblocks next weekend. This was assuming, that the farmers demands are not met at the meeting scheduled with Agricultural Secretary Carlos Cheppi, on Tuesday.

According to Buzzi, there is a lot of unease in the farming sector, who earlier this year waged a four month war on the government, over proposed tax increases on the exports of grain.

In a statement to Radio America, Buzzi said, “Farmers are now worse off than before the strike action on March 10."

March 10, 2008 was the day the government imposed large import taxes on the farmers.

Buzzi went on to say, “farmers want clear moves and clear laws in regard to beef exports and guarantees, that harvests do not go to waste."

The Agricultural Federation, of which Buzzi is the leader, are going to have a meeting later in the week to discuss future plans.